As seen when political crises turn violent, divorces between populations and their institutions are common in international news and are prime examples of a questioning of democratic governance. With regards to power, political, state power, what are the terms and conditions of a population’s adherence to it? Are a State and its institutions the only ones embodying legitimate power? How can the multiple sources of power legitimacy coexist in every country?

Those questions were at the heart of the 2009 meeting held in Lima, Peru. Though an intercontinental approach between South America, Africa and Europe, this meeting opened new « geocultural » perspectives for the International Meeting Process for Debate and Proposals on Governance. This meeting was a moment for multiactor dialogue, bringing together institutional representatives – from the local, national, and international levels -, men and women involved in politics, academics, traditional and religious authorities, and even representatives from private and NGO sectors.

The analyses developed in Lima have shown that in multi-ethnic and pluri-cultural states like Bolivia, Colombia, Equator, and Peru, challenges linked to the question of power legitimacy are at the core of ongoing political and social tensions and mutations. The foundations of the so-called “modern” state are called into question by a democratic governance that proves able to take into account the diversity of sources of legitimacy actually at work in Andean and Amazonian societies: beliefs, constitutions, customs, elections, public services, native people’s movements – and in some cases specific forms of organized violence, which all come together to evolve into new models of social organization and control.